Monday, May 01, 2006

Unlike fellow MZone contributor IC, I didn't spend my entire weekend watching the NFL Draft. But I flipped over to ESPN a few times to get updates on the Michigan guys eligible to be drafted. Unfortunately, Saturday passed without a mention of Michigan football. Western Michigan, yes, but not Michigan. As a matter of fact, ESPN blowhard Chris Berman pointed out that Western Michigan had two players selected in the first three rounds, while the Wolverines had none.Only three Wolverines were drafted this year and no Michigan player was taken until the fourth round when DT Gabe Watson was selected by the Cardinals and WR Jason Avant was sanpped up by the Eagles soon after. Then TE Tim Massaquoi became the 244th player taken (out of 255 total) when the Buccaneers selected him. This year marked the longest draft that went without a Michigan draftee since John Kolesar was taken in the fourth round in the 1989 draft.

Tosu had nine players taken, with seven of those coming before any Michigan player was taken. Even Sparty had three guys drafted. But Michigan got the last laugh on the Broncos - Western Michigan's two second rounders were the only Broncos taken in the draft.

I think this just shows that we didn't lose very much talent from last year and hopefully this will translate to a better team next year. It is easy to point to the draft and say "We had so many players drafted! We were a great team!" Personally I would rather point to the players we still have and believe we will be a great team.

Lordfoul, I hope you're right. The cynic would point to a 7-5 team with a lot of returning players and say "Great, we have a bunch of crappy players coming back."Plus, having a lot of players drafted doesn't mean you won't be good again the following year. Tosu had nine guys taken and they're national title contenders.

Benny, the media and O$U slappies are definately all about the Suckeyes but I expect the lack of experience on defense will lose them at least 2-3 games this coming season. I just don't see a program turning from leaning on a stellar D for wins to exploiting a killer O for wins from one season to the next. We will see what Cheatypants can do to prove me wrong.

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